On October 1, 2026, Kawartha Community Foundation’s Operations & Engagement Manager, Carissa Ferguson, joined representatives from The Law Foundation of Ontario, Community Foundations of Canada, and fellow participating community foundations in Toronto for a Together for Justice roundtable.
Hosted at The Law Foundation of Ontario’s offices, the gathering provided an opportunity to reflect on the pilot, share community experiences, and discuss how local partnerships can strengthen access to justice.
Local experiences informing a broader conversation
Together for Justice recognizes that people in rural, remote, and northern communities face distinct barriers to accessing legal information and support. The pilot brings community foundations and local organizations together to better understand those challenges and support community-led responses.
In Kawartha Lakes, the initiative represents a $180,000 investment in community-based justice supports, including legal education, newcomer rights workshops, transportation assistance, youth justice programming, and outreach to rural residents. Local partners bring practical knowledge of the challenges people face and the relationships needed to help them find support.
The Toronto gathering offered space to bring these local experiences into a shared conversation: what communities are learning, where barriers remain, and how funding and collaboration can better respond to people’s needs.
Recognizing the importance of trusted community relationships
The Law Foundation of Ontario’s Trusted Help research highlights the role community workers play in helping people recognize legal issues, find information, and connect with appropriate services. These trusted relationships are an important part of making support more accessible.
For Kawartha Community Foundation, this reinforces the value of investing in the organizations people already turn to when they need help—and creating opportunities for those organizations to learn from one another.
Continuing the conversation
We are grateful to The Law Foundation of Ontario for hosting this thoughtful gathering, to Community Foundations of Canada for its partnership, and to our community foundation colleagues for sharing their experiences openly.
Above all, we thank our local Together for Justice partners. Their work and insights help ensure that the realities of Kawartha Lakes remain part of the broader conversation about access to justice.
We look forward to continuing this work together and carrying these lessons into our local partnerships.
